


Drums

by Spooks



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2001-01-01
Updated: 2001-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-24 00:27:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/628211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spooks/pseuds/Spooks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war, all five pilots are working as Preventers. They decide to take a camping trip together as a vacation. A storm forces them to spend the night in a cave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drums

**Author's Note:**

> Written and posted sometime in 2000, I think. Posted at semi-request since I let my site go down last year. Please forgive decade-old mistakes if (when) you find them.

The five off-duty Preventers hiked along the shadowed path, carefully avoiding loose stones and brambles. The young men were mostly unfamiliar with forest terrain, having grown up far above the Earth on colonies that concentrated mostly on urban lifestyles and environments. The only one of them that had spent any significant time in the outdoors was Trowa, from his mercenary days as a child, but those memories were distant at best. Therefore, when their vacation time had rolled around, the five friends decided to take what they dubbed a "family" vacation to the great outdoors.

In the lead was Duo, holding a map and whistling merrily as he looked everywhere for animals and interesting plants. Looking basically the same as during the war, Duo was just a sharper version of his younger self. Usually still quite talkative, the young man was unnaturally silent as he observed the quiet sounds of the peaceful forest. Behind Duo hiked Heero, carrying their supply of food. He had sworn up and down that he was not letting either Duo or Wufei carry their rations, because somehow sandwiches would mysteriously disappear never to be found again. Wufei, who was right behind Heero, had a huge walking stick he had picked up somewhere along the way, and every time the group stopped for a break, he would get out a knife and whittle the end of it, making the stick into a spear. He said it was a nice cheap souvenir.

Next came Quatre, who, despite having taken trips to Earth as a child, had never really gotten to see too much without being reined in by the over protective hired nanny du jour. He had been last in their line, but after he had stopped for ten minutes to watch a squirrel, they had decided that Trowa needed to go last and stop the blond from getting left behind. 

And so the five friends walked. Brought together by five fanatical scientists, bloody war, and the subsequent aftermath of fame mixed with ridicule; the former pilots understood each other in ways that really transcended personality differences, thus bonding them as a makeshift family.

It was the first day of their wilderness trip, and they were trying to reach a particular campsite they had picked out the day before. They wanted to climb the mountain that was the prominent feature of the preserved forest, something that hadn't been done in years, due to the rumors that some of the more ferocious wildlife of the precolony days was making a comeback. A few campers that had went hiking in the area during that time had never been seen again, or so the rumors said. Thus, very few people came to the peaceful area and its large hills, winding caves, and lush vegetation. Craving a little bit of seclusion and a bit of danger with their vacation, this forest had seemed like the perfect choice. Besides, they had survived wars, and each other, so surely they could shoot a bear. Not one of them ever left home without some sort of handgun.

But all supposed danger aside, they were already a couple hours into their trek and having a reasonably good time. Far from civilization, they had to be brought to the preserve by helicopter, the roads having long been overgrown by plants and overrun by animals. Quatre was carrying the radio equipment, while Heero had his beloved laptop with a 48-hour battery and a satellite modem, just in case. All in all, they felt well prepared for their week of camping and just hanging out, seeing new things, and tackling that mountain.

After a little while, they entered a clearing and decided to take a break. Sitting in a loose circle, they passed around the canteen that Heero had been guarding. 

"Okay, so, what's the big deal?" Duo asked suddenly, breaking the hushed mood. "I mean, sure, nature is great, this is pretty fun, but I kind of expected more. Everyone always capitalizes the words 'Great Outdoors,' you'd think it would be more exciting."

"And we've been out here, what, a few hours? Give it some time," Wufei replied, whittling away at his walking stick, removing the bark and little branches dotting its surface. It was actually a twisted tree branch that he had picked up, but it worked just fine for his purposes and gave him something to fiddle with.

"Besides, we have to reach our campsite by nightfall, then figure out how to put up the tent," Quatre added. "That should be either fun or really annoying."

"Annoying," Trowa supplied. "Although I'm sure that circus tents are a bit different from the ones we brought, but still, probably annoying."

"I brought the instructions," Heero said absently as he tore blades of long grass out the ground one by one. 

Then they lapsed into silence again, still passing around the water and just looking around, enjoying the sky and the surrounding trees. A soft breeze passed through, cooling the damp sweat on their skin pleasantly. The air seemed to be gaining a particular heaviness, and with each passing minute the humidity seemed to rise.

Sniffing the air, Duo stood up, licked his thumb, and stuck it in the air. With his back arched, braid swinging, and stomach poked out, he looked like a very tall toddler.

"What the hell are you doing?" Wufei asked, looking at the braided Preventer as though he had lost his mind.

"Checking the wind," Duo replied, winking. "I saw it in a movie once, always wanted to try it out."

"Yeah, and?" Quatre asked, standing up, too.

"It keeps changing direction," Duo answered, a huge grin pasted to his face. "We might get a storm!"

"That's not good," Heero stated, also getting to his feet. "We need to get to the site before it hits, or at least find some sort of shelter."

"Bah, you worry too much," Duo replied airily, raising his face to the darkening sky.

"No, he's right, it might be dangerous for us to be in this clearing if there's lightning, and I really don't feel like getting soaked. And do you know how hard it would be to start a fire in the pouring rain?" Wufei fretted as Heero helped him up from the ground.

"Oh, yeah," Duo replied, biting his lower lip in thought. Then he brightened again. "But hey, at least later we'd have something to tell everyone about when we get back! Besides, storms are cool."

"We should get going," Trowa broke in, pointing upwards. 

The clouds above them were already a dark blue, a few shades darker than the lighter sky in the distance, a true sign of a threatening storm. The wind was starting to pick up, light gusts swirling their hair and rustling branches. Underneath the cover of the trees, it was dark enough that the little group had to break out their flashlights. An ominous rumble rolled through the thick wet air. The humidity coupled with the cold wind soon had the former pilots shivering as they hurried along.

"This sucks, this sucks, this sucks, this sucks," Duo mumbled, hugging himself as walked. Ever so often he'd unfold the map to have a look, but in the gloom it was hard to read as it kept trying to flutter out of his hands and fly away with the wind.

Then without warning a deafening peal of thunder rocked the still forest, causing the leaves to shake and the ground to vibrate with its resounding echo. Simultaneously, a deluge of warm rain poured down from the thunderheads, instantly soaking the five.

As a group they stopped, looking around at the storm's fury, trying to cower together, a natural reaction to the pouring rain.

"Did we bring ponchos?" Wufei shouted as he tried to stop his longish bangs from plastering in front of his eyes. After the Mariemeia Incident Duo had forced him to do something different with it, and the Chinese teen had gotten it cut up to his chin, leaving it down most of the time.

"No!" Heero shouted back, shielding his eyes from the downpour.

"Why the hell not?" Duo yelled.

"No room!" Quatre answered for Heero. "Rain wasn't in the forecast!"

"So now what?" Duo yelled after a moment. He was trying to stuff his braid down the front of his shirt so it wouldn't get completely soaked, although it seemed like a futile gesture.

"May I see the map?" Trowa asked, his calm voice managing to cut through the cacophony made by the storm and wind.

Duo handed it over quickly, then resumed hugging himself and trying to protect his precious plait of hair. Trowa flipped his soaked bangs back, and as the group huddled around him to provide some sort of protection from the wind and rain, he peered at the unfolded map for a few moments under the beam of Quatre's flashlight. After a few moments, he folded the worn paper back up and tucked it into his light jacket, then consulted the small compass on his belt.

"There's a cave entrance near here, in the side of that hill," he said, pointing. He then started walking purposefully in a direction perpendicular to which they had been traveling, off the path and towards the cave.

Shrugging, Heero followed the taller man, and soon the rest fell into step, forming a more huddled line as they trudged along. After a few minutes they reached the small cave Trowa had mentioned but by then their shoes were already covered in mud up to the ankles and they were completely soaked to the skin.

Staggering into the cave, Heero took the lead, looking around as though he was prepared to kill a bear with his bare hands if it tried to take away their precious shelter. Thankfully, for any bears that might have been around, the small cave was unoccupied.

Outside the wind had started to howl, and the branches on the small trees were thrashing in the gusts like living whips. Lightning flared every few seconds in the dark gloom of the thick clouds, and thunder almost continuously shook the air, a smell of burnt ozone permeating through the rich earthy smells of the forest.

Standing at the mouth of the cave, backs to the interior, Duo and Quatre stood, watching nature's violence turn the peaceful forest into a tiny world of muddy destruction and temporary fury. Meanwhile, Trowa had joined Heero in carefully searching the limited nooks and crannies of the twenty-foot deep cave. There were a few small openings in the back that may or may not have lead somewhere, but posed no particular threat. Towards the back wall the roof sloped downwards dramatically, too low for either man to stand completely upright. At best, though, in the middle of the cavern, the ceiling was only about eight feet high. 

While two watched the storm and two cleaned out whatever little critters might be residing in their shelter, the fifth of the party was unpacking part of their supplies, namely anything having to do with warmth and food. With the aid of a portable hot plate and a collapsible pot, the Chinese man had some sort of beefy smelling stew heating, its scent mingling with the damp smell of the rain and the musty smell of the cave.

Plopping down on the other side of the hot plate, Heero peeled his shoes off, tipping them over and allowing the watery mud to pour out of them in a tiny waterfall. He wrinkled his nose at the sight, causing Duo to giggle as he too came to sit around the hot plate.

"Uh, guys, I know the hot plate is sort of warm and all, but wouldn't it be good if we built a fire?" Quatre asked, wringing out the tail of his shirt as he also sat down on the cool rock floor.

Shrugging lightly, Trowa started digging through his pack. "Might as well. We could camp here."

"Uh, do we **have** anything to make a fire?" Duo asked, wringing out his socks and wiggling his bare toes.

"I'll go," Wufei volunteered, looking like that was the last thing he wanted to say, but his personal honor demanded it.

"No, I will, I know how to find dry wood," Trowa said quietly.

"Why you, Tro? And how that hell did you find this cave on the map anyway? You been holding out on us?" Duo asked, both joking and genuinely wanting to know the answer.

"Merc days, I didn't realize I remembered that much, though. I used to carry the maps when I was too small to hold a gun or pilot a suit," Trowa answered, speaking quietly. "It wasn't a bad way to live, but just the same, not something I like to mention."

"Oh," came the quiet reply.

"Want some company?" Quatre asked, biting his lower lip. "I can carry stuff, keep it dry."

"Alright," the tall man replied, smiling slightly.

"We'll unpack some of the supplies while you're gone," Heero said, standing.

"Good idea," Duo said, fake smile pasted on his face as he bounced up. He was always like that when one of them mentioned something unpleasant from their childhood. A little bit of sympathy mixed with a large dose of empathy usually triggered the violet-eyed young man to either be in a state of silence or forced cheer.

Knowing that mentioning that now would just cause Duo to freeze up, the other guys went about their business, Quatre and Trowa heading back out into the rain, Wufei and Heero unpacking blankets and other necessities. Duo stood there for a while, staring at the warming stew, then shook his shoulders slightly and joining them in setting up camp.

By the time the stew had finished warming, Trowa and Quatre had returned, and the supplies had all been unpacked. Changing out of their soaked clothes, they started a fire at the mouth of the cave, just out of reach of the windswept rain but close enough that the smoke would filter outside.

"Damn, Wufei, how come you can make this crappy stew taste so good and I can't even make a TV dinner without burning it?" Duo asked. Despite his efforts, his hair had been soaked and he had pulled it back into a messy damp pony-tail, long brown tendrils pooling behind him on the stone floor.

Wufei just raised an eyebrow. "I, Maxwell, am a professional bachelor whose apartment does not include a stove. I can cook anything on a hot plate."

"Well, I hereby laud and worship your culinary skills with prepackaged foods," Duo answered. "But seriously, this is good."

Wufei snorted, then grinned. "Thanks."

"So now what are people supposed to do while camping?" Quatre asked. "We've experienced Mother Nature, have a campfire, and are eating. So, uh, what's next?"

"S'mores," Heero answered seriously, holding up a package of marshmallows. 

"OOOOOOOhhhhh! Really? I can't believe you brought marshmallows!" Duo practically squealed. "Did you bring real chocolate or that crappy artificial fat free stuff?"

Fighting a smirk, the Japanese Preventer held up a couple of bags of Hershey's. 

"Oh, goody," Duo said, grinning and bouncing up and down on top of his folded up blanket.

"As for what we do after **that** ," Heero gave up fighting his smirk. "I believe it is traditional for some sort of storytelling, at least, my research in this area dictates such."

"You did research?" Wufei asked. "Then why didn't you know what to do in the storm?"

The Japanese youth shifted a little bit, looking sheepish. "I, uh, started to do research about camping, but ended up getting sidetracked by reading what is referred to as 'scary stories.'"

"You? Got? Sidetracked?" Duo asked, looking incredulous.

"Shut up, they were good stories," Heero replied, growling slightly.

"Well, go ahead," Trowa smirked.

"What?" Heero replied, looking slightly startled. Why was everyone ganging up on him all of a sudden?

"Tell us one," Trowa let his smirk grow into a genuinely devious smile.

"Well, uh, actually, it's traditional in most societies, American anyway, that with a group of several people, one person starts a story and then another person picks up where the last left off," Heero stammered out.

"And just why did you just study American society, huh?" Duo asked, a gleam in his eye.

"No reason, other than the fact that in the area of recreational outdoors living they participated the most," Heero replied.

"Sure," Wufei drawled slowly.

"Tell you what," Duo said, deciding to come to Heero's rescue. "I'll start, then we can figure out who goes next."

"Fine, sure," Heero said quickly.

"Okay, so this is supposed to be scary, right?" Duo asked, tapping his chin thoughtfully. It hadn't really occurred to him that by offering to go first that he would actually **have to go first**. "Hm, give me a minute to think."

"I can start. I've read a bunch of scary stories," Quatre said suddenly.

"Go for it," Duo replied.

"Yeah, if we waited for Duo to think we might be all night," Wufei said seriously. Duo responded by lobbing a marshmallow of the Chinese man's head.

"Give me a marshmallow before I start," Quatre demanded. Spearing the gooey treat on a stick, he gazed thoughtfully at the fire. Then he opened his mouth to begin, but he was cut off by a flash of lightning that lit up the night and the inside of the cave, making shadows dance to the tune of the raging storm. 

"Hm, how dramatic. Okay. Here we go. Uh. It was a dark and stormy night, and five guys were sitting in a cave just like this one, gathered around a small fire…"

"Oh, please." Duo rolled his eyes.

"Shush," Quatre replied, smacking Duo up the side of the head.

"As I was saying…

~ ~ ~ ~

The five young men had been friends for a long time, ever since they were about fifteen and soldiers in a war of resistance. Of course, that's another story altogether and has been told time and time again. When the five boys grew up and became men, though, they remained in close contact, and eventually ended up working together and eventually going on vacation, and eventually ending up in the aforementioned cave instead of a nice cozy tent.

Their names, in case you didn't know, where Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei. After a bit of conversation, some stew, and some s'mores, they set out their blankets as well they could on the hard stone floor, then lay down, heads towards the fire. Duo had to keep his drying hair tucked close to him carefully, because he was lying so close to the flames. He'd always been cold natured, and knew that even if it might keep him extra warm for a few seconds, the flaming ball of fire that would be caused by his hair combusting would probably ruin the camping trip.

And so they lay back, trying to get comfortable despite the bumps in the hard floor and pretending to try and go to sleep. Eventually their pretending got the better of them, and one by one they dozed off, the soothing sounds of the falling rain and rumble of thunder lulling them away into the realm of dreams.

The next morning they were woke with a start as a quiet rumble rolled underneath their bodies. Half awake and a bit stiff from sleeping on the stone floor, they pulled themselves up to stand, disoriented and confused with the shaking of the cool stone underneath their bare feet.

'What the hell is that?' Duo asked, looking around.

'Earthquake?' Wufei shouted above the deep rumbling of the earth.

'EARTHQUAKE!' They all shouted in unison, realizing all at once that being in a cave during an earthquake might be a very bad thing. This in mind, they all started to run towards the mouth, intending to get outside as quickly as possible.

'Wait!' Wufei, who was closest to the mouth than the other four, yelled. He held his arms out and stopped his friends before they could get any further, almost causing him to stumble forward in the process.

A split second later the cave entrance, well, caved in, large boulders and small stones showering down like water, filling the opening tightly, and plunging the small cave into a deep darkness. If it weren't for the dying embers of the fire, it would have been pitch black.

'Well, this isn't good,' Duo finally said, yawning and stretching his arms above his head. Despite the casual words and attitude, it was clear that the American was worried.

'No, not good…' Heero confirmed, staring at the blocked entrance as though his glare alone could move boulders that were as tall as he was.

Nimbly, Trowa jumped up and perched on one of the larger rocks. He leaned forward and tried to pry one of the small stones from the top of the entrance, but on succeeded in starting a mini avalanche of little pebbles and dirt to trickle down and take the stone's place.

'I think that there was a landslide triggered by the earthquake,' the tall man said as he hopped down from the rock, careful of his bare feet. 'I don't think there is any way to move the rocks and dirt blocking us in here in the time that we have before we either run out of air or food.'

For a long moment they just stood there, taking in the situation and looking from the blocked entrance to each other. Duo absently reached up and started to comb through his hair, tugging on it harshly, an outward sign of just how nervous the young Preventer was. 

Finally, Heero, of all people, broke the silence. 'There's a few holes in the back of this cavern, they might lead somewhere.'

'Yes, but what if they don't? Shouldn't we stay here and try to dig out?' Wufei asked, not arguing, but simply weighing their options.

'Did you see the size of this hill?' Quatre asked, digging out the map from where Trowa had left it the night before. 'With the elevation of it, if that landslide out there was just even a quarter of the hill's soil ran down, it would take us at least a week to dig through it all. We have no way of knowing how much dirt is out there. It could take an hour or a month.'

'Okay, then what about the radio and Heero's laptop? We know where we are, we should be able to get some help out here,' Duo said as he finished brushing and started braiding.

Heero immediately set up his laptop and tried to access the satellite modem. 'No good, the hill is too dense for the signal to go through.'

After trying the radio equipment, it was clear that there was no way for them to communicate with the outside world. There weren't even supposed to be in the cave, they were supposed to be at a designated campsite, on their way to climb a mountain. Instead, they were stuck in a hill, trapped in the dark with a limited food supply.

'So, guess we're going into one of those little tunnel holes back there. Don't want to, but we don't have much choice,' Duo finally said, basically verbalizing what everyone was thinking. 'Besides, I can't stand the thought of just sitting around here.'

Getting dressed and putting out the fire to stop smoke from building up inside the cavern, they brought out their flashlights and oil lamps. Deciding to go with flashlights until they ran out of batteries, they turned as a group, grabbing only the most necessary equipment to take, namely the food, the laptop, the radio, and first aid supplies, then started towards the back of the cave.

Because of the low roof in the back of the cavern, the five men had to stoop down slightly. Heero, who was in the lead, shone his flashlight at the three tunnel holes. 'Pick one,' the Japanese man said, shining the bright beam at all three openings.

'Let's take the biggest one,' Wufei said, looking critically at the openings. 'I don't really think crawling along underground on sharp rocks would really be that great, but if I'm going to do it, I'd like just a little bit of room.'

Nodding, Heero went to the opening that was a couple feet off the ground but about four feet tall. Gripping the flashlight in his teeth, he hoisted himself up to stand on the lip of the opening, then turned, helping Duo up. Duo then helped Quatre, and Quatre helped Wufei, and both helped Trowa up, since he was a bit taller than the both of them. 

Shuffling along, the group went single file, stooped down to avoid bumping their heads and sometimes having the edge under stalactites that protruded from the ceiling. Finally, after about thirty minutes of walking, probably about a mile or two down the tunnel, it opened out into another cavern, tall enough so that could all stand up, and wide enough so that they could all sit down or wander around a bit if they felt so inclined. It was here that things became a bit more complicated.

'Okay, so which way now?' Duo asked, looking at the multiple openings.

'Up, if we can,' Trowa replied, joining his friend in looking at their possibilities. 'Checking the compass won't help, because we don't know how the tunnels will connect to lead us out.'

'Yeah, but what if it's a dead end, and what if we keep getting multiple choices like this?' Duo replied, wrinkling his brow in thought.

'Ever heard of Theseus?' Wufei asked, holding up spool thin twine.

'Um…something about Greece?' Quatre answered, scratching his head.

'Yeah, didn't he fight the Minotaur?' Duo asked. 'Oh, right. I get it. Theseus had to find the Minotaur in a huge maze, and so he wouldn't get lost he unraveled a ball of string as he went along. Great idea, Wu.'

'Thanks,' Wufei replied, looking pleased with himself. 'I have a few of these, so when they run out we can just tie one end to the other, or start a new one, and if that runs out then we can just mark the ones we've taken with a piece of medical tape or something.'

After a few minutes more of stretching and standing completely upright, they tied off Wufei's string around a stalagmite and started off down another tunnel. Heero was again in the lead, but thankfully the tunnel they were in didn't force them have to walk hunched over. Before too long they reached another cavern, then another, and instead of getting closer to the surface, it seemed like they were getting deeper into the earth. Finally they decided to stop to eat something and change the batteries in their flashlights. 

'It's so quiet,' Quatre said, looking around at the cavern in which they were currently sitting. Because of the damp, cool air, they had all put on light jackets, but it didn't seem enough to shield them from the chill of the place. Something about it just seemed off, and although it was a ridiculous notion, the slight blond felt as though he was being watched. Shivering, he pulled his jacket tighter around him and focused on his sandwich.

'Yeah,' Duo agreed, shining their one lit flashlight around the large cavern. Unlike the ones they had been in before, this one had a ceiling at least forty feet high, with peaks that were too lofty for the weakening beam to penetrate very well. 'I wonder how deep we are.'

'No telling, this cave might stretch on for miles,' Wufei said, looking a tad nervous. 'I don’t like this. I don't like being here.'

'You don't like being trapped in a huge, multifaceted cave with us, Wufei?' Heero asked dryly. 

Wufei just rolled his eyes. 'You've been hanging around Duo and watching too many of his comedies. No, I mean that I just feel…weird. It just feels strange in here.'

'You're creeped-out, too?' Duo asked, leaning forward. 'Maybe it's just because we're trapped in here. I've never been claustrophobic, but the walls feel like they're moving sometimes.'

Trowa turned at that. 'You've noticed that, too?'

'Okay, stop!' Heero suddenly barked out, his voice echoing slightly in the cavern. 'We don't need to be thinking about that kind of thing, we need to be thinking about getting out of here.'

'So you're a bit scared, too?' Quatre asked quietly.

'Of course I am,' Heero replied, glaring. 'I just don't see the point in discussing it. It just makes the feeling worse.'

A low rumbling beat suddenly sounded from one of the largest tunnels, a distant quick roll of sound that made the ground vibrate slightly.

'What the…' Duo started, standing up and directing the light into the tunnel the noise had come from. 'That's not another earthquake.'

'No it's not,' Wufei agreed, his dark eyes wide and shining in the low light.

'Sounds kind of like someone beating a drum,' Quatre mused, biting his lower lip.

Another beat sounded, closer this time, shaking the ground enough to cause the soles of their shoes to vibrate. A low whistle accompanied the sound for a brief instant.

'Let's go back the way we came and go down another passage,' Duo suggested, stuffing anything he had laid out on the cave floor back into his bag, not caring about order, just trying to get it in there so he could leave.

'Agreed,' Heero said, the faintest glimmer in his dark blue eyes betraying the fear the former soldier felt.

Wufei grabbed the string he had laid down and tugged on it, intending to start rolling it back up as he went along. Instead of the light pressure he expected on the line, it came freely, easily sliding into his grip as he pulled hand over hand on the twine. Eyes widening, he started reeling in foot after foot of the line, about thirty yards of string pooling onto the ground at his feet. The echoing pulses of sound kept coming, closer and closer, causing the walls to shake and stalactites to crack and fall, showering the cavern with chunks of rocks that danced along the floor with every beat of the drum.

'Wufei, what are you doing? We can get the slack out lat---Oh, God,' Duo whispered. Wufei had finally found out just why their had been no resistance on the string.

'Look,' the Chinese man whispered, holding up the frayed end twine he now held in his hand. It was damp and slightly red tinted. It almost looked like it had been chewed through, savaged by a thing with sharp gnawing teeth.

'I haven't seen any moisture in the tunnels, so how did it get wet?' Quatre whispered, gingerly touching the end of the cord, wincing as another echoing beat poured into the cavern.

'It's not important right now. There is something coming!' Heero hissed, grabbing random arms and backpack straps, pulling them away from the center of the cavern. Once he was satisfied that he had their attention, he flipped on his own flashlight and took off into a different tunnel altogether, one that turned sharply as soon as he had gone a few feet.

Forgetting about the twine, Wufei dropped it and followed, but not before glancing down the tunnel they had went and then at the one in which the beats were approaching. He was closely followed by the other three. The whistle was becoming more and more high pitched as it approached, and it was sounding more like shriek than a controlled sound, a eerie accompaniment to the pounding drum. The cavern was shaking constantly now, and it became clear that something was definitely coming.

It was coming fast. 

It was almost there.

Before they knew what they were really doing, the group was running headlong through the cave, taking random turns and almost losing each other in the dancing darkness of their bouncing flashlight beams. The beats, now sounding like reverberating bass drums in their urgency, seemed to be following them through each turn and twist they took. Every step they pushed forward was doubled by the now piercing whistle, the walls shaking as the beating noise came closer and closer. It was so loud that the walls were shedding tiny pebbles that almost caused them to fall in their harried flight, loud enough that their ears were aching under the onslaught of high and low sound.

Finally they reached another large cavern, breathless from the run, when Heero came to a sudden halt, causing both Wufei and Duo to run into him. Not fazed, Heero dropped his pack and riffled through it briefly, coming out with his gun. Eyes hard, eyebrows twitching slightly, he pointed his weapon at the tunnel the noise had followed them down, and as soon as Trowa and Quatre were clear, he pulled the trigger.

The noise of the gunshot was deafening in the subterranean cavern, echoing off the walls in the small space and shaking the ground slightly. The drumming noise stopped abruptly at the sound, as did the whistle. The silence after the beats and the gunshot was overpowering, its contrast almost as frightening as the approaching drums. The silence was thick, their ears ringing in the aftermath.

Time returned slowly to normal, and soon the quiet panting of Heero's breath came into focus as he tucked the gun into his waistband. The body heat generated from their flight started to catch up with them, and as they sat down on the cool stone floor they peeled of their jackets. Everyone felt more than a little spooked while simultaneously feeling foolish for being so easily panicked.

After a few moments of recovery, the small group started looking around nervously at the many pockets of blackness surrounding them. Every crevice seemed to be writhing with darkness. As a silent, unspoken decision, Duo, Wufei, Quatre, and Trowa all pulled out their handguns and stuck them in their waistbands, as Heero had already done. 

'What was that? What kind of animal lives in a cave and not only carries a drum but also whistles?' Wufei whispered, hugging one of his knees up to his chest.

'There isn't one,' Trowa answered quietly, running a hand through his sweaty bangs and glancing back at the tunnel they had just came from.

'Then what was it?' Wufei asked again, staring off into space.

'Does it matter now? We're lost,' Quatre spoke, also whispering.

'It was trying to get us lost,' Heero added, rubbing the perspiration out of his eyes with the back of his hand.

'Explain,' Wufei said, brow furrowing in thought as he eyes came back into focus.

'Severing the string made us not want to go back the way we had came,' Heero answered. 'We hadn't went too far, yet, and we probably would have been able to figure out on our own where we were in relation to the cave-in. Now we've taken so many turns so quickly that we'll never be able to find our way back.'

Duo nodded, his braid grasped firmly in both hands as he sat cross-legged on the cold floor. His voice was strangely calm as his spoke, completely at odds with his words. 'Let's get one thing straight here. I don't want to die in this cave. Hell, we survived the war, and we survived Mariemeia. I don't want to die in a stupid cave. I don't want to die like this.'

'None of us do,' Quatre replied. 

'The gun scared it. We left the ammo back with the surplus supplies. I have five bullets left. If you each have six rounds, then we have twenty-nine more times to scare it away. By then we might be able to get out of here,' Heero whispered, checking his gun.

'We should start moving,' Trowa said quietly, breaking the silence. Standing up, they started down another tunnel, this time not bothering with the string. They were already lost in an underground maze, being chased by something that could not exist. No one was going to say it out loud, but not one of them ever expected to see the light of day again. Their only option now was to wander around and desperately hope they'd stumble onto a way out. It wasn't exactly a situation that had them feeling full of hope.

After a few hours of treading the cold stone floor with thick darkness enveloping them on every side, the group was starting to feel safe again. Duo tapped Heero, who was still leading, on the shoulder and pointed to the illuminated face of his watch.

'Hey, it's about five p.m. We should eat something, keep our strength up and all that,' the American whispered. The entire walk since their encounter, they had all made an effort to remain quiet, whispering and tiptoeing around loose stones and random pools of water. 

Heero just nodded, his face impassive in the backwash of the flashlight beam. 'We should rest.'

They stopped in the next cavern that they arrived. Setting supplies down along the wall, the group broke out some food, eating as little as possible while consuming just enough to keep going. Who knew how long they'd be in the subterranean world? They'd have to ration their food.

'Hey, you guys?' Duo spoke up, chewing his last bite carefully. When he had all four men's attention, he swallowed the mouthful and stared at each of them in turn. 'If we run out of food, I want you to eat me.'

'You're kidding right?' Quatre asked, sounding like he desperately hoped so.

'Hell no. I'm serious,' the dark glint in Duo's eyes was more than enough proof of his earnestness.

'I think I'd rather starve first, and I don't mean that as something against you,' Wufei finally said, his sentiment echoed by the slight nods of the other three.

'I'll bet you'll change your mind,' Duo just shrugged, then peeled off his shoes. 'Hey, does anyone else's feet feel like they've been pounded with a meat tenderizer?"

'It's the uneven floor,' Trowa supplied.

'I don't think it's a very good idea to take your shoes off, we might have to go at anytime,' Heero whispered, looking at Duo's now bare toes wiggling happily against the cool floor.

'I can run barefoot if I have to,' Duo just replied, grinning as he stretched his arms above his head. 'I could use a nap.'

'Why don't we just stay here for now, then move out again in a couple of hours? It's not as though we have to worry about daylight,' Wufei said, pulling his shoes off as well. 'Wow, that really does feel better.'

In five minutes flat there was a neat row of five pairs of shoes beside the backpacks. They had laid out a couple of blankets on the hard floor to sleep on. Since standing guard wouldn't really do that much good due to the obvious stealth needed to chew through the string, they decided that standing guard would be futile, but they just couldn't let themselves be defenseless. So they decided to have one person stay awake while the others slept, taking shifts. That in mind, Heero was to take the first watch, then wake up the next person, and so on.

Of course, having basically decided to take a long break entailed the forced decision to save the batteries in the flashlights. In other words, have complete and utter darkness. Putting the flashlights all within easy reach, they got as comfortable as possible. Finally, Heero turned out the one remaining flashlight, plunging the cavern into a blackness so absolute that it felt alive, as though it was surrounding them with a blindfold that destroyed their eyesight instead of just a lack of light filling the space between the walls of the cave. The darkness seemed to smother them immediately, filling every crevice of the cavern. It was like a sentient being that was able to devour light and hope, plunging them into a dark world.

Checking Duo's watch frequently, Heero observed the darkness, eyes squinting as they tried to pick up any smidgen of movement in the pitch. Ears strained, every quiet breath of his sleeping friends were amplified a thousandfold, and each thumping beat of his heart threatened to mask an approaching footstep. By the time his hour was up, he was wrung completely out, mentally and physically exhausted. After waking Trowa and handing over Duo's watch, the deprivation of sensory input made him feel as though he were floating, his only anchor to the world the woolen fibers of the blanket underneath his back as he lay down. Sleep was a blessing.

One by one each man took his turn, each second guessing any sleeping movement or sound of the others, frequently checking the illuminated face of Duo's watch, sometimes three times in one minute. Four hours passed, and Duo got his turn to observe the oblivion around them.

Sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him in the darkness, arms straightened behind him and propping his torso up, Duo mused about what it would be like to be just a mind, floating in the middle of a pool of nothing. If he didn't feel the cold stone floor with its jagged texture and smooth planes, he wouldn't have even known that he had legs at all in the absolute darkness. Shifting his weight slightly, he tilted his head back, feeling the slight movement of his hair sliding along the floor behind him.

After a few more seconds of waiting, he leaned forward and tried to check his watch, right hand going automatically to the dial to light up the face. Instead of encountering the cool metal knob, his fingers fumbled over bare skin. Confused, he clapped his hand over his wrist. Where was his watch? Twisting around, he started patting the ground behind him. After a few minutes of searching blindly he gave up and flipped on the flashlight, wincing at the sudden bright stab of illumination in the dense black darkness.

Cupping the beam over with his hand so that it wouldn't wake the others, he looked around. Behind him there was nothing but blank floor. Confusion and sneaking panic rising, he turned the shielded beam to the space around him. 

No watch. 

What the hell? It had been around his wrist less than five minutes ago. Watches just don't fall off on their own, especially ones that have Gundanium buckles salvaged straight from the late Deathscythe Hell Custom. That would mean that something had taken it off of him. But that was impossible, because wouldn't he have felt that? From years of experience, he knew that a thief had to have some sort of distraction to steal something like a watch. It was next to impossible to just take it off; unbuckling and unstrapping the band took time.

Biting his lip, he just sat there, trying to give the other sleeping men a fair amount of time to rest. Looking around with the covered flashlight, he blinked in confusion. Hadn't they laid out their other flashlights right beside them? Had one of the others moved them during their shift? Wide-eyed and on the verges of getting really freaked out, Duo nudged Heero awake, figuring that since he had first watch he might not be as cranky about being woken up prematurely.

'What?' The Japanese man mumbled, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes, shielding them from the dull light.

'My watch is gone, somehow it got taken off my wrist,' the American responded, worrying his lower lip. 'And I think something moved the flashlights we had laid out.'

'What?' Heero asked again, this time his voice taking on a whole different tone. Eyes wide, he took in his surroundings, cataloging and filing the information. 'Check the oil lamps. They should be in Trowa's bag.'

Duo just nodded and stood up, padding along the floor and over to the bags. After a moment of rifling through the main compartment of Trowa's backpack, he sighed in relief. The old fashioned carrying lamps were still there, as well as a good supply of wicks and oil. Technology was great, but thank God for the novelty of tradition.

'They're here,' he whispered back. 'We should wake the others up and ask them if they moved the flashlights during their watch.'

Heero just nodded, then without preamble shook each of the sleeping Preventers. Training from the war came in handy, even if it was a bit rusty. Within about thirty seconds the three were awake and looking rather disgruntled.

'Okay, important question, don't want any joking here,' Duo started, hurrying back to sit down with the rest of the group.

'Spit it out,' Wufei cut in grumpily.

'Did any of you move the flashlights?' Heero asked, glaring to cover up his nervousness, an old habit.

Three quiet 'No's' were his answer.

'Oh God, something took my watch right off my wrist and took the flashlights right when I was sitting there looking and listening for it and now I'm getting a bit nervous again,' Duo blurted out.

'Your watch is gone?' Trowa asked, looking pointedly at Duo's bare wrist. 'When?'

'About five minutes ago. I was just sitting there, propped up on my arms, and I decided to check the time. No watch,' Duo replied, fiddling nervously with his shirttail.

'You didn't feel anything?' Quatre asked, pale eyes widening.

'No! I used to be a career pickpocket, and one thing you have to learn is how not to get things stolen that you've already lifted,' Duo replied. 'It had to have unbuckled it from my wrist, and I know I would have felt that.'

'Let me get this straight. The only watch with a light-up face is gone, so we'll have to waste battery power if we want to know the time. We have one flashlight now. What about the batteries?' Wufei summarized, obviously making an effort to remain calm and think the situation through.

'They were beside the flashlights,' Trowa answered.

Duo groaned. 'Of course they were.'

'Okay, for some reason I feel the need to know what time it is,' Quatre suddenly spoke up. 'It's like it'll give me some sort of anchor to reality here. Let me see the flashlight…' His voice trailed off as pulled up the sleeve of his jacket. 'My watch is gone.'

Four sets of eyes seemed to double in size. Sleeves were rolled up and pockets were searched, but anything they owned that might have shown them the time was missing. Even Wufei's pocket pager was gone, and he had that in his back pocket.

'Laptop,' Heero whispered, striding over to his bag. After pulling the small electronic pad from his bag and opening it, he dropped the computer and backed away immediately. The computer collided with a strange clatter with the stone floor, dull tinkling thuds accompanying its muted crash. By this time the other four had gathered behind the dark haired man, and they formed a huddle as they stared at the remains of the laptop.

The screen had been slashed, LCD liquid leaking out between the gashes that went deep enough to expose the wiring and chips behind it. The keyboard had been savaged, keys torn off and jagged holes gouged into the hard plastic, tiny speakers dented in and obliterated. Edges of the small computer had been chewed, and the indentation of razor sharp teeth dotted the plastic case, leaving nothing unmarred on the inside of the computer's surface. In sharp contrast to the destruction on the inside of the laptop, the outside cover, the part exposed when the laptop was shut, was as pristine as the day it had been assembled.

'I've had that since the war,' Heero said quietly, shock and regret managing to edge into his voice. 'When could this have happened?'

'In the dark,' Trowa whispered. 'While we watched and waited and listened, it did this.'

'We **have** to get out of here,' Duo whispered.

End of discussion. The group packed up whatever they had lying around, broke out one of the ancient portable oil lamps, and got ready to leave. All they lacked was putting their shoes back on, savoring the cool floor underneath their aching soles for as long as possible. Unfortunately, this was a grave mistake.

Right when they were reaching for their shoes, bags sitting ready to go, they heard a single reverberating drumbeat. Louder and closer than the initial drumbeat before had been, another beat soon followed, dramatically nearer already. Sound echoed in the small cavern, causing pebbles to dance and the walls to shake, the eerie whistling piercing through the deep beats and providing a painful clash of sound. For one brief second of silence between the beats and the strange whistling, five sets of eyes managed to meet as they struggled with their shoes.

Wufei was the first to get his boots laced up, tying them quickly and slipping his backpack on in one swift movement. Seizing the flashlight from where they had laid it in the middle of their circle, he focused its beam to the middle of the floor, allowing the backwash of the light to illuminate the others' shoes. Duo was having trouble with his laces, Heero tied his right boot off and stood up, and Quatre was finished next. Trowa had one shoe and sock completely on, but was just lacing the tops of the other boot. 

The drums were getting closer.

The cavern was now continuously shaking, as though it were going to collapse from the force of the sound that was coming from the fiercely beating drums. After a short eternity, Trowa finished lacing up the second boot, not bothering to tie it off as he stood up.

Deciding to save the oil lamp for when they weren't going to running and risk spilling oil everywhere, they took off in a panicked flight, this time with Wufei in the lead. Initially just creeped out, primal fear was now taking a hold of the group, squeezing their hearts in a cold grip. 

It seemed silly to be running from something they couldn't see, a mere sound, but something about that impending drumbeat was ominous in ways that could only be seen in the psychotic gleam of a serial killer's eyes. Deeply buried basic animal instinct was kicking in, overriding years of training from the war and years of service afterwards had taught them, driving the group into that place were men still fought saber-toothed tigers with spears. Adrenaline pumping, rational thought losing the battle for control, they ran.

The beating was now staying at a constant place behind them, sounding as though it was not gaining, but also not falling behind, as though it were toying with them. The strange whistle was there, too, speeding up and almost constantly shrieking, breaking for a split second between each uneven pulse. The sides of the tunnel were crumbling slightly, breaking off in sheets. The world was a shaking, unsteady place.

A muted cry of shock from Trowa caught their attention, and backwards glances showed why. His untied shoe had fallen off long ago, and he had stepped on a particularly sharp protrusion, making the pain too much to continue running. His sock was soaked completely with blood, dripping a red trail behind him and pooling thickly on the floor.

One fleeting remnant of rationality finally kicked in with the pain, though, and Trowa had drawn his gun. Face blank, he fired into the tunnel behind him, the bullet ricocheting off the stone with a harsh cutting sound. Immediately the drumming stopped, but the whistle remained for a long moment. Then it was silent, save for the panting breaths of the five young men. Trowa lowered his gun and tucked it away again. He then sank to ground in a tired heap, cradling his foot and pulling off the blood drenched sock.

Striking a match, Heero lit up the oil lamp he had been carrying, and the group assembled around the tall man. Quatre took out the first aid kit and tended to the deep wound in the bottom of Trowa's foot with practiced but delicate ease while the others watched the tunnel in the direction the drums had been approaching. Standing up, weight balanced between the ragged wall and his good foot, he eased down on the injured foot carefully, only to have his leg buckle and almost collapse underneath him. Corners of his eyes pinched in quiet agony, he sat back down.

'Keep going,' Trowa said quietly. 'I can't.'

'Like hell,' Duo answered.

'Do you really expect us to do such a terrible thing as to leave you behind?' Wufei demanded, his voice warring between anger and fear.

'Not really, but I could try, right?' Trowa answered, an almost imperceptible smirk on his face.

'Good,' Heero replied, not really speaking in response to Trowa's dry humor but to the meaning behind it. They weren't ready to give up yet.

'We do need to get to another cavern, though, don't we?' Quatre muttered, thinking out loud. 'Or would it be better to stay here, where we can defend from two directions? Or do we want to keep trying to get out?'

'Get out,' Wufei responded immediately.

'Yeah, if we can get out of here, then we'll be safe,' Duo added, the silent 'maybe' echoing in his dubious tone.

'But right now we can't go anywhere too far, so it would be more tactically sound to stay where we are where we can defend the two directions,' Quatre nodded.

'Agreed,' Heero added.

So they set up a temporary little camp, giving Trowa painkillers for his foot. They had to wait for them to kick in before he could be expected to walk anywhere. Not only was the bottom of his foot a raw, torn mess from the multiple little rocks, but he had stepped on a sharp stalagmite that had sliced the bottom of his foot open all the way to the bone. The cut had also needed to be cleaned, since some tiny rocks had managed to work their way into his tattered sock and into the furrows of torn flesh. It was one hell of a wound. The smell of drying blood was thick in the air, mingling with musty natural smell of the passage and the sterile scent of bandages and antiseptic.

Wufei and Duo leaned against the opposite wall from Trowa, guns ready on their laps. Quatre was beside the injured man between him and the direction the drums had been coming from. Heero was pacing back and forth, his shadow dancing along the pitted surface of the rocks in the light of the oil lamp he had sat down on the floor at Trowa's feet. Wufei had turned off the flashlight to conserve the batteries and bulb, laying it down beside the flickering little lamp.

After what they could only estimate as a few minutes, a dank hot breeze wafted down the tunnel, rolling over them in a putrid airy wave. Instantly four bowed heads rose and one set of booted heels ground to a halt. Scrambling to their feet, Duo, Wufei, and Quatre brought their guns to the ready and took positions. Duo joined Heero's side, facing the direction the beats had previously been approaching from and from where the subterranean breeze was coming. Wufei took the rear, back to the side of the tunnel to watch both directions. Quatre stayed by Trowa, also with his back to the side of the tunnel, watching forward. Again the burning wind came, blowing harder. Then a single beat of the drum, far away, but still loud enough to echo down the tunnel and vibrate the soles of their boots.

For a few seconds it was totally silent, the breeze now gusting, riffling clothing and hair as it washed over them, smelling like rotting flesh and blood. Their shadows danced on the rough walls, the flickering oil lamp both illuminating and adding to the surreal atmosphere. 

And then the flame died.

Loud gasps and cries of shock echoed in the tiny chamber of the tunnel, and after a few long seconds spent in the absolute suffocating darkness, Trowa struck a match. It flickered out almost immediately, but the reassurance of the tiny flame lasted long enough for him to strike another and light the little wick of the oil lamp. 

Wufei was gone.

'Shit,' Duo said, managing to state everyone's reaction in one whispered word.

'Wufei? Wufei!' Quatre shouted, picking up the lamp and walking a little ways down the passage.

'Quiet, Quatre!' Heero whispered urgently.

'It know where we are already,' Trowa said quietly.

'I know, but it doesn't mean we should just yell like that!' Came the answer.

'He's gone,' Duo whispered. 'It just took him…Right when he was standing not three feet away from us. He didn't even get a chance to shoot at it.'

'Maybe he just wandered away,' Quatre wondered, knowing how ridiculous the words sounded, how futile.

'Yes, and perhaps he is conversing with munchkins somewhere over the rainbow. Wufei's a hell of a lot smarter than that,' Duo replied, sitting down in the middle of the passage. 'I can't believe it.'

'We don't know that he's dead, he's just missing,' Heero muttered, plopping down on the floor as well.

When Trowa spoke up sometime later to announce that the last flashlight was also gone, it didn't really faze anyone. By that time his painkillers had kicked in, and they were able to starting moving again. Wordlessly they distributed the remaining sources of light, each taking some oil and matches. Taking anything worthwhile out of Wufei's discarded pack, they distributed that as well. Then they were walking, Trowa leaning on Heero as the other two flanked them as well as they could in the narrow tunnel. As they moved in the darkness with the tiny flame lighting the way, shadows morphed and danced, causing them to jump back at phantom movement at every turn of the passage. Nerves as tight as wires and spirits as low as the dirt, they moved along.

After what had to be several hours, many turns, and multiple tunnels later, they finally stopped again, this time in another small hollow. This one was really nothing more than a large opening in their current tunnel, therefore having only two entrances. Breaking out small portions of food and water, silence reigned as they ate. Trowa took a couple more painkillers. It was decided with minimal conversation that they needed to rest again, and they would take turns. This time, instead of trying to conserve supplies, they'd leave the lamp burning. Also, two people would stay watch at the same time.

Duo and Trowa slept first while Heero and Quatre stayed awake. With no way to tell the time or how much time had passed, they tried to guess the watches, attempting to give the two sleeping at least a couple hours of rest. It was strange how profound the inability to determine the time of day was affecting them. The sun could be up or it could be obliterated forever. Where they where it didn't matter. All they knew was the darkness, the smell of the cave, and the drums.

Finally enough time passed, and they switched watches. Heero and Quatre immediately retreated into the void of rest where the drums couldn't follow, sinking into exhausted sleep instantly. Duo and Trowa sat there, completely silent for what felt like an eternity before Trowa finally spoke up, trying to make some sort of conversation. The silence from the usually talkative American was unsettling. After a while, though, they were quiet again, contenting themselves with their own thoughts. Duo bit his lip and buried his head in his hands for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut against the light of the tiny flame that danced in the clear glass tomb of the oil lamp.

When he looked up, Trowa was gone.

Scrambling backwards, his boot heels scrapping along the hard floor, Duo managed to climb to his feet. Snatching up the light, he almost left the two sleeping to look around, but stopped. Biting his lip hard enough to draw blood, he dropped to his knees between Heero and Quatre, laying the lamp down on the bare stone floor. He shook them awake, not removing his hands from their shoulders after they sat up. It had taken Trowa in the light, right before him, while his head was bowed. They had to stay in some sort of contact or risk losing another.

'Trowa's gone,' the braided man whispered quickly, then resumed biting his lip. It was either that or risk screaming.

'What?' Quatre whispered, disbelief plainly coloring his voice, his eyes riveting to where Trowa had been sitting when he had fallen asleep. Immediately he pinched his arm, hard enough to bruise, hoping that it was a nightmare. But no, another one of them was gone. Who would be next?

Heero closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, there was a clear glint of anger and fear tainting them as he glared at where Trowa had been. 'When and how?'

'We were sitting here, I looked down, and when I looked up, he was gone,' Duo whispered, his grip tightening on the other two's shoulders, causing them to shift their gazes from where Trowa should be back to the American's face. 'There was no warning, no breeze, no drums, no whistles, nothing. The light didn't even flicker.'

'What's that?' Quatre suddenly whispered, pointing to a tiny shining object where Trowa had been sitting. It hadn't been there when they had first glanced over.

Heero, closest to the object, leaned forward and picked it up. 'Trowa's compass.'

Holding the small circular object in the palm of his hand, he picked up the light and held it next to the shiny metal tool. The little directional pointer, instead of focusing on magnetic north, was spinning rapidly. Heero dropped the compass in shock.

'We have to get out,' he whispered. 'I've been scared before, but not like this. There is no way to defeat an enemy that we don't even know really exists.'

'Uh-huh. Gotta leave. Or I might start laughing and never stop,' Duo whispered, sounding frantic.

Quatre just nodded, mechanically gathering up his belongings. Add sleep deprivation to the list of things that were mounting against them. Disoriented, lost, and scared, they were strangers in a place that they never should have been in the first place. Some vacation. 

Salvaging anything worth survival value from Trowa's pack, they left it sitting in the tunnel. When they had gone to pick up the spinning compass, it was missing. Not bothering to search for what they knew they would never find, the trio left, trekking again through the never-ending tunnels of the cave.

At one point they stopped for a brief respite, and Duo had the idea of tethering them together. Everyone knew it would be futile gesture, but it seemed better to do it than not. So when they started going again, no longer single file but moving in a sort of clump, they were tethered together with a rope around their waists. There was about two feet of play between them, and they were secured in a triangle instead of a line. Thus, if one went, hopefully the other two would at least feel a change in pressure, maybe even quick enough to stop the third from being taken away.

But nobody actually believed that.

When the drums came again, starting closer than ever, already loud enough to rumble the small passage they were walking through, Heero drew his gun and without hesitation fired in the direction the noise was coming from. 

It didn't stop. For the first time, the gunfire did not work. 

The drums just doubled in their intensity and volume, the whistling shriek piercing through the thick darkness. As one, the three turned and bolted, running full tilt down in the large passage. Stumbling into a large cavern, they halted, shocked by what they saw.

A small pile of twine lay in the middle of the cavern. It was Wufei's string. This was the cavern they had been in before the madness started. Eyes wide, the trio turned and ran through the initial passage they had entered it from, panic overriding rationale again, primal fear gripped their hearts and gave them speed they had never had.

Then the inevitable happened. Someone stumbled, falling and dragging the other two down with him. Their lit oil lamp, which Duo had been carrying, went rolling, dumping onto its side and killing the little flame. Drums getting closer, their clothes were literally vibrating on them, any metal they carried shuddering in the great peals of sound that reverberated in the small space. Darkness was thick around them, and the approaching whistle seemed to stab through it, mixing with the turbulent beating of the drums. Then the pounding stopped suddenly, the deep beats echoing in the air in almost visible waves. Scrambling for matches, it was Quatre that finally got a lamp lit. 

Heero was gone.

Violet eyes met aquamarine in shock and pure terror, eyes turning to the ragged ends of rope that now hung from their waists. Not even bothering to speak, they took off running again, hurtling through the darkness with the tiny flame lighting their way, shadows jerking across the walls. The darkness seemed alive in its movement, as though their presence and their bringing in of even such a meager source of light offended it greatly. 

Already much closer to where they had started, back at the cave in, they were now following the string that had been left by Wufei not even a day earlier. The silence was suffocating as they ran, seemingly worse than the pounding drums had been.

Finally they halted, sinking to the cold floor, panting and completely out of breath. Terror coupled with hard running had drained both their strength and their stamina. Duo threw up, emptying his stomach of the sparse meals he had eaten and then sending him into dry heaves. Quatre just stood there, watching silently, holding his friend's hair back.

'It's my fault,' Duo suddenly whispered.

'What?' Quatre whispered back, yanking gently on the taller man's shoulders to turn him to face him.

'If I had navigated better before, we never would have had to go in the stupid cave to begin with. I was the one that was watching when our flashlights were stolen, as well as our watches. If I hadn't suggested we take off our shoes, Trowa wouldn't have had to stop because of his foot, and Wufei would still be here. Trowa disappeared on my watch. Heero's gone because I dropped the fucking lamp!' Duo whispered fiercely.

'That's ridiculous, none of this is your fault!' Quatre hissed back.

Before they could continue, the drums were back, this time starting as close as they had left off in chasing them before. The sudden rolling bass was deafening, and the ground literally almost shook them off their feet. 

Duo's head swiveled in the direction of the impending drums, then he turned and looked straight at Quatre, eyes boring. 'Do you still have the radio equipment?'

'Yeah, it's in my pack. Why?' Quatre replied, momentarily confused at the seeming random inappropriateness of the query.

A huge grin firmly pasted on his face, Duo drew a hunting knife and sliced through his rope tether. Then he drew his gun, holding it in front of him. 'I'm going to stop this thing. You run,' he said in a calm voice.

Quatre didn't move, staring at Duo as though he had lost his mind. 'You must be kidding!'

Duo just shook his head, his braid whipping behind him severely. He dug out an oil lamp, lit it, then discarded his pack. 'The way I see it, it's going to get one of us anyway. It seems to be hungrier. With all this shaking, there might be enough rocks shaken on the cave-in and you might be able dig through. Someone needs to get out and tell them what happened. You're smaller, you can probably get outside. You'll be safe then. Now go!'

'But--' the blond started, eyes impossibly wide.

'Good bye, Quatre. Make it out, live for the rest of us,' Duo whispered, then ran in the direction of the approaching drums.

Tears of shock and grief threatening to pool up in his vision, Quatre ran the other way, following the tiny white string in the dancing darkness. About thirty seconds after he had started, he heard gunfire, and a scream that cut off abruptly. Only then did the whistling and pounding drums cease. Duo was gone, now, too. Quatre was all alone in the darkness with the drums.

Before he knew it, he was back in the original passage they had to stoop when walking through. The first passage. The beginning. No longer able to run, he scurried along as quickly as possible, doing his best not to just drop from sheer emotional and physical exhaustion. But he didn't stop, grimly determined to honor what had been Duo's last request. He was going to make it out. He had to.

When he was about fifty yards from the mouth of the tunnel, he felt a hot breeze behind him, rolling over him in a thick near-tangible stench. Refusing to be distracted, Quatre scuttled along, going as quickly he could despite the cramps burning in his back from being hunched over for so long. His feet ached as though there were demons gnawing at their soles, his heart was weary from pent up grief and terror. Head aching from the loud drum beats, piercing whistle, and overwhelming stress, he just wanted to collapse into a tired heap and let the drums catch him. 

Instead he pressed on, ignoring the rising whistle and the distant echoes of the pounding bass. It was far away at the moment, almost as far as it had started the first time. Thankful for small miracles, Quatre literally fell out into the cave they had spent the first night in, stumbling along, dragging his feet through the ashes of the dead fire. He hastily lay down the oil lamp by the discarded bags from their first stay in the cave, then turned to the blocked entrance. It seemed that with the drumming and the shaking, the blockage wasn't nearly as hard packed. Hope soared within him at the thought of some real, pure daylight.

Scrambling up the pile of dirt and fallen stones, the blond man frantically started shoving rocks out of his way, fingers struggling against the loose dirt. The drumbeats were significantly closer, and the echoes aided him in his task, causing the smallest bits of soil and pebbles to shake away on their own. 

With a quiet groan, the stones shifted, and a small patch of light finally pierced the darkness. Joy and sweet hope making him forget about his bleeding and torn fingernails, Quatre furiously stabbed into the tearing rocks and soil. About a foot of square light was now streaming in, just a few more inches wider and he'd be able to fit through.

One inch wider.

The drums were thunderous now, as though they were beating inside his head instead of in the rock cavern. The whistling was puncturing through the lower frequencies to create a terrifying tableau of sound.

Two inches wider.

The hot wind was now rushing around him, scalding his skin as it escaped out into the daylight. As pale hands darted in and out of the widening hole, flashing in the sunlight, the ground rolled in waves from the roar of the drums.

Three inches wider.

Disbelief mixed with euphoria filled him as Quatre finally made the hole big enough for him to get through. Feet seeking for purchase in the rubble and loose stones, he threw his bag through the hole first, then dived forward, arms and crown of his head piercing the hole in the debris and out into the light, the blessed light.

The drums stopped.

Something yanked on Quatre's ankles, pulling him swiftly back into the cavern. He was spun around, escape just a bare foot above his head. In a hazy wave of terror, one final thought echoed through Quatre's mind.

There were no drums.

~ ~ ~ ~

Quatre finished his story, his voice low enough that the other four had to lean forward to hear him speak. With the final words uttered, he looked up from where his gaze had been fixed on the flickering fire, a small grin gracing his mischievous face, contradicting the haunted look in his wide eyes. Stunned silence filled the small cave. Lightning flashed outside, accompanied immediately by a peal of thunder that caused four out of five young men to jump in startled fear.

"Well?" The blond finally asked, blinking innocently, the hooded look retreating slowly from his eyes.

"Well what? That was damn good," Duo replied. "Where the hell did you come up with that? Holy shit, Q, you got completely got me."

Quatre grinned. "You liked?"

"I don't know if 'liked' is the word here," Wufei responded. "Hey, uh, why'd you kill me first?"

Quatre just shrugged. "Dunno, it seemed to fit with the story. I honestly don't know how I thought of it all."

"At least I shot at it," Heero mused, running his fingers through his messy bangs.

"What about my foot?" Trowa asked, holding one of his feet up and looking at it cross-eyed for a moment. "That sounded extremely painful. Good description."

"It just fit," Quatre shrugged again.

"You are one sick little man, Quatre," Duo grinned. "I'm so proud!"

"Only you would say something like that, Duo," Heero raised an eyebrow at the American beside him. 

Duo just stuck his tongue out in response. 

"Oh, I kinda forgot that someone else was supposed to take a turn in there, didn't I?" Quatre suddenly said, biting his lower lip. "Sorry."

"It's okay, I can honestly say I wouldn't have come up with something so personal or so…unsettling," Wufei replied.

The conversation continued on such lines for a little while, everyone discussing certain points of Quatre's story, their characterizations, and their individual actions. It seemed that the blond had perfectly captured them in the story, well, as well as could be expected. The blond man just shrugged, saying that he didn't know how he had thought it up. It had seemed to come to him, taking him along for the ride. He was just letting it have an outlet to be verbalized.

Finally they set out blankets and sleeping bags, heads toward the fire. After a little bit of joking and light conversation, one by one they dropped off to sleep.

The next morning sunlight streamed in through the mouth of the cave, pleasantly bringing the group into a nice place somewhere between oblivion and wakefulness.

Then the ground began to shake…

~ ~ ~ ~


End file.
